shiny silver car
by THE-GHOST-OF-PURPLENESS
Summary: 'Sorry, leo, but we don't want you at our wedding, so here's a shiny silver car.'/sequel to burn it down


**Well, hi again! A lot of people asked for a sequel to 'burn it down,' so i did this one-shiny silver car-to sort of add to it. I think I'll make this a trilogy, and finish it off nicely with a tragic little ending, so please do review with what you guys want. After all, there probably wouldn't have been a sequel if not for you.**

**I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Leo Valdez, or a shiny silver car.**

_~sh_

_iny silver car~_

Leo remembers a lot of cars like this. Shiny and silver and new, the kind of car everyone in the world wants to have and wants to drive.

He also remembers all those things that happened in those cars—the people, the hope in their eyes and then dark, pained expressions when they finally realized he was beyond saving.

_Percy_, teaching him how to drive because no one else would let him near their cars. _(and regretting it, because he burnt the leather off the seats in a fit of anger.)_

_Annabeth_, kissing him in a fit of anger and guilt over Percy, then pushing him out the door with a horrified look on her face. _(she never spoke of it again but when she finally kicked him out after months of angry flames, he couldn't help the comment that followed.)_

_Nico_, wordlessly handing him a Happy Meal after a particularly bad fire, then turning the radio up as loud it could go to drown out his tears. _(funny, because a few months later he was the one that was crying as he kicked leo out, and all leo could do was shove a bag of cheap plastic toys through the window as he sped off.)_

_Jason_, laughingly handing him the keys to the car to take a girl on a date (_and then snatching them back a few hours later, screaming words of mindless rage as he tosses all of leo's things out onto the street_).

And _Piper_, driving to pick him up and comforting him and taking care of him. _(and leaving him, leaving him too alone and afraid to do anything but **burn**_**,**_ and **oh god** did he burn, he burned brighter than any fire he'd ever seen before._)

Now he's sitting alone in the stupid car, knowing he should probably call Jason (_thanks for the pity gift, and no i don't mind being uninvited to your wedding, no it's perfectly okay, no I won't burn down another fucking house in anger_), but he can't. He can't do anything.

It's sad, because this time he isn't even drunk (_and there is nothing to quench the fire, but it's dying out on its own now)_, but he still can't think straight and the world is blurred around the edges.

Now he's sitting, alone in his car, wishing something would change and Jason or Piper or someone would give him a vote of confidence and bring him to the wedding.

The wedding where now, probably at this very moment, Jason and Piper were exchanging their vows.

And everyone who couldn't have been bothered to help him was there, probably celebrating his absence and maybe, if he was lucky, hoping he would someday get better.

But he won't.

He knows that, because fire doesn't just disappear. It _dies_, it burns out, and he knows he'll eventually lose that spark too.

But he doesn't plan on going out, not like that.

And fire is release, fire is _freedom_. It's everything he really does not deserve, but it's right there, all the same, bringing him comfort and safety and—well, he knows by now that it is also the reason why he doesn't deserve it, paradoxical as it is, but it's his.

It's the one thing he knows he can do that no one else in the world can. It's the one thing he can, for certain, be held accountable for.

It's the one thing that is _his_.

That's not to say he doesn't get why he was uninvited. No, they made the reason quite clear when they sent him this car—he is imperfect, like Titans and monsters and Giants and all of those nasty things that go bump in the night—and they do not need him anymore.

He supposes that was expected. After all, how long could he possibly be useful when all he did was _destroydestroydestroy_, and before that he was really only good for the Argo II. But the war is over now, a distant memory in a sea of past regrets, and he hasn't given it—or his role in it—too much though in a very long time.

But now everything is rushing back to him again, cold and hard and unforgiving. The deaths—Hazel, cold on the ground right after they won, and _gods_ hadn't he just decided it didn't matter if all she saw was Sammy because he loved her anyways?—and the wounds, and of course everyone celebrating the heroes when they got home—the heroes, but not him.

Even then he had already been forgotten.

So now it's ok, he tells himself, he doesn't need glory anyways. He doesn't want it or need it and Percy and Jason and Annabeth and Piper can keep it all to themselves. He really doesn't care (_except that he does. So much, now, too, because if he had glory then people might look past all his mistakes and see the one thing he did right. But he has none, and people see only the fire.)_

Now he fingers the invite, a thick, fancy, cream-colored invite with gold etchings and the kind of swirly, swooping letters that were murder on a demi-god's eyes.

_Join us for the wedding of Piper Mclean and Jason Grace,_ it reads, though it had takes him quite some time to figure it out.

He should have known that words on paper mean nothing in real life.

But really, he wouldn't have lost it at their wedding. He was still in love with Piper, and he was still jealous of Jason, but Jason was his best friend and Piper the love of his life. He wanted them to be happy and if that meant watching them cut him out of their lives forever, he could have done that. _(or so he thinks. He hasn't been sure of anything in a long time, not since Piper gave up on him at least._)

He leans back in his seat, the cold leather a relief against his hot, fiery skin. What he would give to not exist right now, to not be here.

Or at least not to be in this car, this curse disguised as a blessing that has become his prison. His home, actually, since now his apartment is nothing but ashes and no one wants him anymore. All his stuff is in the passenger seat, crammed into a duffel bag that's somehow not any worse than just mildly singed.

He thanks the gods that they at least allowed him that.

He closes his eyes, intent on drifting off into dreamland, but something hits just as his eyes are closing.

This was Jason's car, the car Piper kicked him out of….and now she's let him have it.

Somehow, that thought sums up everything that is wrong about his life.

_Sorry, leo, but we don't want you at our wedding, so here's a shiny silver car._

He really isn't that surprised.

~_shiny silver car_~

**So, what did you guys think? I'd love to hear your thoughts and advice, so please leave a review! **

**-The Ghost of Purpleness**


End file.
